Religion Dispatches
…s not all monotheistic, and it is not even necessarily theistic at all. As scholars of religion have ventured, if we turn the kaleidoscope on our perceptions of “religion,” and replace the with the rhetoric of sacrality, then we will notice a great deal of rather clearly religious activity that is not located in traditionally “religious” venues at all—venues housing cultural matters like sport, and music, and film. What seems to me to require fur…
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…a’s auto-da-fé came not only in the comments section, but in nasty emails, phone calls, and demands for his firing from Messiah College. As he discovered, the culture wars are real, and practiced even on those (like Fea) who largely have been critical of Obama’s actual implementation of his promises about faith-based policies. More important than these blogosphere wars, however, is understanding something deeper about these screeds about Obama as…
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…statement complaining of police harassment and lack of response to ongoing scams and blackmail against people accused of being gay. Andy Kopsa points to a recent article in the Lancet that makes the connection between discrimination and barriers to health care: In Cameroon, he estimates that somewhere between 30% and 50% of MSM may be infected with HIV and other countries with high HIV burden have also had challenges in providing supportive health…
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…ng, the pointed rejection felt familiar. Robertson attended SBC-affiliated schools and churches “off and on” for eight years, and was a youth group leader at baptist churches in Illinois and Maryland. In 2014, he was formally condemned by the SBC for his outspoken support for marriage equality in Time magazine. He says he was threatened with expulsion from Moody Bible Institute (which has deep connections to formal SBC structures) for what he desc…
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…eriences and techniques to navigate emerging adulthood, a process Miller discusses in depth. Over the phone, Miller spoke with The Cubit about adolescence, definitions of spirituality, and the reframing of spiritual experience as a pragmatic tool. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. So how are science and spirituality interacting here? Science is actually an elegant way for understanding spirituality. It connects what so many de…
Read More…tand what has perplexed and fascinated me so about reportage of the Madoff scandal. The issue is one of tone, finding the right tone for a wedding announcement, or for a meditation on a scandal of such colossal proportions. Lofton captures the melancholic heart of the thing—if it were not so, then why should death play such a prominent part in the very ceremony from which we should most wish to protect it? “Til death do us part,” we say, reminding…
Read MoreI just got off the phone with Nancy Ratzen, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, who said the group would be issuing an endorsement of Elana Kagan later today. Ratzen, who said the NCJW has, since 2001, “engaged consistently on reviewing and taking positions and educating and mobilizing progressive Jewish community” on judicial nominations, said that the group would be working hard to see Kagan confirmed. “We think she has an except…
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…refuses to see antisemitism as a set of beliefs that can be clearly circumscribed. This is a problem that’s been highlighted by many scholars, like David Engel whose seminal article “Away From a Definition of Antisemitism” points out that every period of violence, bigotry or persecution of Jews has such a different historical context that it’s nearly impossible to identify a unified, coherent, and transhistorical phenomenon. This isn’t to say tha…
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…ld. In the past decade, the Roman Catholic clergy abuse, News of the World phone-hacking, and Wikileaks scandals have marked new, and only very incompletely explored, ethical territory as we sort out the best ways to balance personal privacy and public safety as these are impacted by our engagement with new media. But even given difficulties defining necessary and appropriate boundaries of personal, professional, and institutional transparency, we…
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…nding unexpected connections between verses, what believers call comparing scripture with scripture, was a way to become known in the group. The essays they wrote explaining these links could be stunningly intricate. That intricacy was part of the appeal. The arguments were so complex that they were impossible to summarize and therefore very challenging to refute. As one longtime believer, an accountant, told me: “Based on everything we know, and…
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